Cannock bar caught selling to underage customers for second time

Missoula is the latest in a string of bars across Staffordshire targeted by licensing bosses.

This is the second time in 18 months that the Market Place bar has been caught out. And police have been called out 29 times in the last two years, according to a report.

Officers are calling for conditions to be imposed on the bar's licence when bosses appear before a Cannock Chase Council committee on Thursday.

Two underage volunteers were sent into the bar in November last year, and one of them was served an alcopop.

The staff member who served the 17-year-old formally interviewed by police, admitted the offence and was subsequently given a fixed penalty notice.

It later emerged they had taken an online training course about serving underage customers a month earlier.

The report by Sgt Tracey Carsley says the 17-year-old was 'at no point asked for her age or for any identification prior to the sale taking place'.

The member of staff told officers he did not ask for ID as he was busy with a Christmas booking, Sgt Carsley adds.

The report says: "The police believe that in light of this matter and previous incidents the premisesd licence holder, Stonegate Pub Company Ltd, clearly need to do more in relation to the promotion of the licensing objectives in the areas of prevention of crime and disorder and the protection of children from harm. We believe a review of the premises licence is necessary in these circumstances."

It comes after the Club Lounge in Church Street, Cannock, was allowed to keep its licence, despite having one the worst records in its area for the number of times police have been called out.

And The White Lion in Cannock kept its licence with landlord Thomas Dunning ordered to improve staff training and hand over day to day management to his wife.

Overall 107 pubs in Staffordshire were targeted between January and September last year with nearly half failing to ask underage teenagers for any identification.

Inspector Jared White, who leads the licensing team at Staffordshire Police, said he was disappointed with the county-wide failure rate and said he wanted to see pubs embrace Challenge 25 which means bar staff should ask for identification of customers who they believe are 25 years-old and younger.